Ed Kemper Personality Theories

Edward Kemper

The Co-Ed Killer

Summary

Edward Kemper is a well known serial killer, who was known as The Co-Ed Killer. He was an active killer during the 1970’s in Santa Cruz California. Ed Kemper murdered ten people including two of his grandparents, his mother, and his mother's friend. He is currently a modle prinsoner at California Medical Facility serving eight life sentences. Kemper from a young age had a facination with death from childhood. He would play strange games, including one where he would have his sister tie him up in a chair and he would begin convulsing pretending that he was being electrocuted. He also killed and tortured two of his family cats. The first of his murders were his grandparents whom he was living with, at age 15. He then went to a mental institution and got diagnosed with a personality disorder, and was released at age 21. Two years later from 1972 -1973 he went on a killing spree, killing multipel young women in the Santa Cruz mountains, and those among his last victims were his mother and her friend. He would kidnap, torture, and rape them. After killing his mother and her friend, he turned himself in and was found gulity for 10 counts of murder.

Kemper & the Big Five Theory

Neuroticism

Extraversion

Neuroticism

Oppenness

Agreeableness

Consciousness

Kemper is low in extraversion. Sources say that he always wanted to be by himself, and not participate in activities. He was diagnosed with being narcissistic and anti social in prison.

Kemper is highest in neuroticism. It is said that he would get extrmemly mad if things didn't go his way. In a report, while in the mental hospital, it said that he gets overwhelmed with feelings of parental rejection, guilt, and worthlessness.

Kemper consciousness is mid range. He can be unsystematic and disorderly. He once locked his keys and gun in his car with a victim who had not yet been murdered. On the other hand, prison guards have said that he has a lot of integrity when it come to his work in prison.

Kempers agreeableness is mid to high. He can be moody and seem cold at time, but he is also known to be friendly, open, sensative, and have a good sense of humor (Wikipedia, 2023).

Ed Kemper is highest in Openness to experience. He is intellectual, curious, creative, and has lots of fantasies (Grande, 2020). He is also incredibly intelligent with an IQ of 145.

Kemper sharing a cigarette and a laugh with a detective.

"He is friendly, open, sensitive, with a good sense of humor." - John Douglas FBI Profiler

Ed Kemper & Biology

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Neuroticism, extraversion & the Amygdala

Emotional stability and the nuerotransmitter Seratonin

Extraversion and the neurotransmitter Dopamine

Freud's Psychosexual Theory & Ed Kemper

Anal

Phallic

Genital

Oral

Latency

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Timeline of Murders

8/27/1964

5/7/1972

9/14/1972

8/27/1964

5/7/1972

Edmund Emil Kemper, Sr. paternal grandfather 72 years old

Maude Hughey Kemper paternal grandmother 66 years old

Mary Anne Pesce Co-Ed Student 18 years old

Anita Luchessa Co-Ed Student 18 years old

Aiko Koo Co-Ed Student 15 years old

Timeline of Murders

1/8/1973

2/5/1973

4/21/1973

2/5/1973

4/21/1973

Cindy Shall 19 years old Co-Ed Student

Clarnell Strandberg 50+ years old (Kempers mother)

Sally Hallett 50+ years old (Clarnells friend)

Rosalind Thorp 23 years old Co-Ed Student

Alice Liu 21 years old Co-Ed Student

Conclusions

Kemper big five personality traits merge in a way that emphaisize his moster of a human. He is high in neuroticism which is social instability, and low in extroversion, that would increase the social instability. While his being high in openness and agreeableness made it so girls did feel comfortable getting in a car with him, and how he is a model prisoner. This mixture of personaltiy traits, genetics, and his fixation has made Kemper one very messed up individual, despite the ‘likable’ traits of his personality.

According to Frued and the psychosexual phases, Kemper had multiple early conflicts that were not resolved which created a monster. His mothers alcoholism, continuous verbal abuse, and neglect through all these stages created fixation, without ever being resolved. The verbal abuse abuse didn’t end until he killed his mother, making it impossible for any conflict in either of these stages to remotely be resolved.

Kemper has lower levels of the serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters which are corellated to his levels in neuroticism and extroversion. Kemper also has an overactive amygdala that increases shyness, anxiety, and moodiness. Whether these biological and personality traits come from his childhood of abuse and neglect, or was inherited from his family, is unlikely to ever be known. What we do know is that this mixture of personality traits and genes has created a monster.